Several publications and patent documents are cited throughout the specification in order to describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. Each of these citations is incorporated herein by reference as though set forth in full.
Hard tissues, including cartilage, tooth, and bone, and medical implants are hosts to a wide variety of disorders and diseases (e.g., dental caries, osteoporosis, bone cancer, and the like), which require the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. Many therapeutic agents have been developed to treat these disorders and diseases. However, the success of these therapeutic agents has been largely limited by the inability to specifically deliver them to the target tissue at an effective and sustained concentration. The instant invention allows for the delivery of compounds, such as these therapeutic agents, in a targeted manner without the need for chemical modification of the delivered compounds.